CONGRESS. (THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



153 



accustomed channels. Manila, whose inhabitants 

 were Heeing to the country a few months ago, is 

 now a populous and thriving mart of commerce. 

 The earnest and unremitting endeavors of the com- 

 mission and the admiral and major general com- 

 manding the Department of the Pacific to assure 

 llii- people of the beneficent intentions of this Gov- 

 ernment have had their legitimate effect in con- 

 vincing the great mass of them that peace and 

 safety and prosperity and stable government can 

 only be found in a loyal acceptance of the author- 

 ity of the United States. 



The future government of the Philippines rests 

 with the Congress of the United States. Few 

 graver responsibilities have ever been confided to 

 us. If we accept them in a spirit worthy of our 

 race and our traditions, a great opportunity comes 

 with them. The islands lie under the shelter of 

 our flag. They are ours by every title of law 

 and equity. They can not be abandoned. If we 

 dt'sert them we leave them at once to anarchy and 

 finally to barbarism. We fling them, a golden 

 apple of discord, among the rival powers, no one 

 of which could permit another to seize them un- 

 questioned. Their rich plains and valleys would 

 be the scene of endless strife and bloodshed. The 

 advent of Dewey's fleet in Manila Bay instead of 

 being, as we hope, the dawn of a new day of free- 

 dom and progress, will have been the beginning 

 of an era of misery and violence worse than any 

 which has darkened their unhappy past. The sug- 

 gestion has been made that we could renounce our 

 authority over the islands and, giving them inde- 

 pendence, could retain a protectorate over them. 

 This proposition will not be found, I am sure, 

 worthy of your serious attention. Such an ar- 

 rangement would involve at the outset a cruel 

 breach of faith. It would place the peaceable and 

 loyal majority, who ask nothing better than to 

 accept our authority, at the mercy of the minority 

 of armed insurgents. It would make us responsi- 

 ble for the acts of the insurgent leaders and give 

 us no power to control them. It Avould charge 

 us with the task of protecting them against each 

 other and defending them against any foreign 

 power with which they chose to quarrel. In short, 

 it would take from the Congress of the United 

 States the power of declaring war and vest that 

 tremendous prerogative in the Tagal leader of the 

 hour. 



It does not seem desirable that I should recom- 

 mend at this time a specific and final form of gov- 

 ernment for these islands. When peace shall be 

 restored it will be the duty of Congress to con- 

 st met a plan of government which shall establish 

 and maintain freedom and order and peace in the 

 Philippines. The insurrection is still existing, and 

 when it terminates further information will be 

 required as to the actual condition of affairs be- 

 fore inaugurating a permanent scheme of civil 

 government. The full report of the commission, 

 now in preparation, will contain information and 

 suggestions which will be of value to Congress, 

 and which I will transmit as soon as it is com- 

 pleted. As long as the insurrection continues the 

 military arm must necessarily be supreme. But 

 there is no reason why steps should not be taken 

 from time to time to inaugurate governments es- 

 sentially popular in their form as fast as territory 

 is held and controlled by our troops. To this end 

 1 am considering the advisability of the return of 

 the commission, or such of the members thereof 

 as can be secured, to aid the existing authorities 

 and facilitate this work throughout the islands. 

 I have believed that reconstruction should not 

 begin by the establishment of one central civil 

 government for all the islands, with its scat at 



Manila, but rather that the work should be com- 

 menced by building up from the bottom, first es- 

 tablishing municipal governments and then pro- 

 vincial governments, a central government at last 

 to follow. 



Until Congress shall have made known the form- 

 al expression of its will I shall use the authority 

 vested in me by the Constitution and the statutes 

 to uphold the sovereignty of the United States in 

 those distant islands as in all other places where 

 our flag rightfully floats. I shall put at the dis- 

 posal of the army and navy all the means which 

 the liberality of Congress and the people have 

 provided to cause this unprovoked and wasteful 

 insurrection to cease. If any orders of mine were 

 required to insure the merciful conduct of mili- 

 tary and naval operations, they would not be 

 lacking; but every step of the progress of our 

 troops has been marked by a humanity which has 

 surprised even the misguided insurgents. The 

 truest kindness to them will be a swift and effect- 

 ive defeat of their present leader. The hour of 

 victory will be the hour of clemency and recon- 

 struction. 



No effort will be spared to build up the waste 

 places desolated by war and by long years of mis- 

 government. We shall not wait for the end of 

 strife to begin the beneficent work. We shall con- 

 tinue, as we have begun, to open the schools and 

 the churches, to set the courts in operation, to 

 foster industry and trade and agriculture, and in 

 every way in our power to make these people 

 whom Providence has brought within our juris- 

 diction feel that it is their liberty and not cm- 

 power, their welfare and not our gain, we are seek- 

 ing to enhance. Our flag has never waved over 

 any community but in blessing. I believe the 

 Filipinos will soon recognize the fact that it has 

 not lost its gift of benediction in its worldwide 

 journey to their shores. 



Some embarrassment in administration has oc- 

 curred by reason of the peculiar status which the 

 Hawaiian Islands at present occupy under the 

 joint resolution of annexation approved July 7, 

 1898. While by that resolution the republic of 

 Hawaii as an independent nation was extin- 

 guished, its separate sovereignty destroyed, and its 

 property and possessions vested in the United 

 States, yet a complete establishment for its gov- 

 ernment under our system was not effected. While 

 the municipal laws of the islands not enacted for 

 the fulfillment of treaties and not inconsistent 

 with the joint resolution or contrary to the Con- 

 stitution of the United States or any of its treaties 

 remain in force, yet these laws relate only to the 

 social and internal affairs of the islands, and do 

 not touch many subjects of importance which are 

 of a broader national character. For example, the 

 Hawaiian Republic was divested of all title to the 

 public lands in the islands, and is not only unable 

 to dispose of lands to settlers desiring to take up 

 homestead sites, but is without power to give com- 

 plete title in cases where lands have been entered 

 upon under lease or other conditions which carry 

 with them the right to the purchaser, lessee, or 

 settler to have a full title granted to him upon 

 compliance with the conditions prescribed by law 

 or by his particular agreement of entry. 



Questions of doubt and difficulty have also 

 arisen with reference to the collection of tonnage 

 tax on vessels coming from Hawaiian ports: with 

 reference to the status of Chinese in the islands, 

 their entrance and exit therefrom; as to patents 

 and copyrights ; as to the register of vessels under 

 the navigation laws; as to the necessity of hold- 

 ing elections in accordance with the provisions of 

 the Hawaiian statutes for the choice of various 



